Electronic clocks or timekeepers which use oscillators controlled by quartz crystal vibrators to generate timing signals are widely known. These oscillators which are controlled by quartz crystal vibrators, however, have frequencies that vary in response to temperature changes, process variations, and aging. Various techniques associated with these oscillators have been developed for compensating for temperature and process variation and for aging. These oscillators, however, are often still expensive, often consume much more power than desired, and often fail to be as accurate as desired. Also, these oscillators are often not compatible with other integrated circuit manufacturing processes, such as those associated with very large scale integration ("VLSI") and complimentary metal oxide semiconductor ("CMOS") processes.
Capacitive based tunable micro-mechanical resonators or oscillators are also known. An example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,133 by MacDonald et al. titled "Capacitance Based Tunable Micro-mechanical Resonators." The resonator illustrated in this patent includes a mechanically movable component which is suspended for motion with respect to a substrate. The movable component is a microelectromechanical ("MEM") elongate beam and includes laterally extending flexible arms which suspend the beam and mount the beam to an adjacent substrate. This resonator, however, includes complex electrostatic actuators for quickly tuning the resonance of the mechanical structure, can be expensive to manufacture, and is not practical for many applications.